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Pattabhi Sitaramayya,Bhogaraju (Dr. ) (1880-1959)

Well-known to his contemporaries as Pattabhi Sitaramayya and better still as Dr. Pattabhi and now chiefly remembered as the historian of the Indian National Congress, Dr, B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was born on 24 December 1880 in a village called Gundugolanu (Ellore taluka, West Godavari district) in a poor Andhra Niyogi Brahmin family. His father, Subrahmanyam, was the Karnam of the village, getting a monthly salary of about eight rupees only. Pattabhi was the third of the four children of his parents. His father passed away when he was only a child of four or five and the burden of bringing up the children fell upon his mother, Gangamma.

Young Pattibhi had his traditional early education in his own village. He passed his Matriculation examination in the first class in 1894 from a Christian Mission School at Ellore. Then he joined the C.M.S.Noble College, Masulipatnam, and did his F.A., again in the first class, in 1896. Here he had the good fortune of having R. Venkataratnam Naidu as his teacher, who greatly inspired him by his uprightness and devotion to duty.

Subsequently, he moved over to Madras and joined the Chirstian Coolege with the help of a small grant from a friendly quarter and the Singaraju Subba Rao Pantulu scholarship. The same year he married Rajeswaramma, daughter of Ganjam Venkataratnam Pantulu of Kakinada, leading lawyer of the place and a fairly rich man. With his help he joined the Madras Medical College and took his M.B. & C. M. degree in 1901.

Soon after his education Dr. Pattabhi moved to Masulipatnam and set up practice as a physician(1906). That was the age when enlightened intellectuals, whether lawyers or doctors, could not keep away from the rising tide of the national movement. When the partition of Bengal (1905) sent a wave of protest throughout the country, the leaders of Mauslipatnam including Dr. Pattabhi strove hard to awaken the national feelings of the people through the press and by organizing lectures and Harikathas.

In 1907 Dr Parrabhi and other leading citizens of Masulipatnam resolved to raise funds for National College. Their efforts bore fruit and the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala was founded in 1910. Pattabhi himself acted as its Secretary for several years.

The youthful Dr. Pattabhi was at first inclined towards extremism and became an admirer of the ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ school (i.e., of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chnadra Pal). Ere long he became a member of the Home Rule League of Dr. Annie Besant and ultimately found his true place as a Gandhite. He reconciled himself to a peaceful struggle under Gandhiji’s banner of Satyagraha.

Dr. Pattabhi made Masuliptnam the centre of his activities. Here he started, in 1919, an English nationalist weekly called the Janmabhumi. Through this he propagated the ideas of non-violence, Satyagraha, boycott of foreign goods, advantages of the cooperative movement, etc. he strongly advocated the starting of Banking and Insurance Companies by Indians to prevent what he called “an annual drain of a hundred crores of rupees.” The Janmabhumi continued functioning till 1930.

To propagate the cooperative movement in Andhra he started a Telugu periodical called Andhra Sahakara Patrika. For some years he was elected a member of the Municipal Council of Masulipatnam. Sever4al leading financial institutions owe their origin to his inspiration and guidance. At Masulipatnam he started the Andhra Bank (1923), the Bharatha-lakshmi Bank (1929), the Andhra Insurance Company (1925) and the Hindusthan Indusrance Company (1935).]

Dr. Pattabhi’s association with the Indian National Congress goes back to his college days, when one of its annual sessions was held at Madras in 1898. He took part in the Andhra movement since 1913, when he made a powerful plea for a University for the Andhras and advocated the creation of a separate Andhra Province. He wrote several articles in the Hindu and also a book on the need for a lingusitic re-distribution of Provinces to strengthen Indian Nationalism.

In 1916 he became a member of the All India Congress Committee. In

that year he gave up his medical practice. He remained a member of the AICC up to 1952. He was elected a member of the Congress Working Committee in the years 1929-30, 1931, 1934-36, 1938,1939,1940-46 and 1948.

When Gandhiji started non-cooperation in 1920, Pattabhi brought out a booklet on the subject. During the years 1924 and 1925 he was actively engaged in carrying out the constructive programme of Gandhiji. When tempers were running high against the Simon Commission and when Simon visited Madras in February 1928, Dr. Pattabhi organized a demonstration against the visit and was taken into custody and later released.

On the issue of Dominion Status Vs. Complete Independence, Dr. Pattabhi, like Jawaharlal Nehru, threw his weight in favour of the latter. He was elected President of the Andhra Purna Swarajya Sangam. In the Calcutta session of the Congress (1928) he voted against the ‘All Party Resolution’ demanding Dominion Status.

On the eve of the Salt Satyagraha campaign (March 1930) Dr.Pattabhi toured the villages of the East Krishna district and spoke to the villagers about the significance of the campaign. He himself broke the Salt Law in April 1930 by leading a batch of volunteers to the sea-shore near Masuliptnam and making salt. A meeting was held at Masuliptnam and a small salt packet was auctioned for Rs. 15/-.

While addressing a public meeting at Masulipatnam on 5 January 1932 in defiance of a prohibitory order, Dr. Pattabhi was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for a year and a fine of Rs. 1,100/-. In October 1933, he was again arrested while picketing a shop selling foreign cloth and sentenced to six month’s imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500/-. In 1936 he presided over the All India States’ People’s Conference at Karachi and strongly pleaded for their rights, including sending representatives to the Central Legislature. He was again made President of the AISPC in 1939 and 1946-48.

Towards the close of 1938 Gandhiji nominated him for the Presidentship of the Congress when there was a growing extremist wing in the Party under5 the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose, but he was defeated in the election. Gandhiji then made the famous statement,”Pattabhi’s defeat is my defeat.”

When Gandhiji launched his campaign of Individual Satyagraha (1940-41), Dr. Pattabhi was chosen to participate in it but he was arrested and detained from 19 March to 1 November 1941. Gandhiji followed this with his ‘Quit India’ call in 1942 and there was a mass agitation. Dr. Pattabhi was arrested only in June 1945. In December 1946 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Madras to work out a Constitution under the Cabinet Mission’s Plan. In 1948 he was elected President of the Jaipur session of the Indian National Congress.

In Independent India he was honoured with the Governship of Madhya Pradesh in July 1952, which post he held till June 1957. He passed away on 17 December 1959.

It is significant that though Dr. Pattabhi was a popular Congress leader and held in high esteem by Ganghiji, he did not hanker after office and did not take part in elections to the Provincial Assemblies or the Central Legislative. He was primarily a patriotic intellectual, a little proud and uncompromising. He took pleasure in working for the Congress organization and in writing and publishing books. His earliest publication was ‘National Education’ (1912), of which K. Hanumantha Rao was co-author.

In the subsequent years he wrote and published the following: ‘Indian Nationalism’ (1913), ‘The Redistribution of Indian Provinces on a Linguistic Basis’ (1916), ‘Non-Cooperation’ (1921), ‘Khaddar’ (1931). ‘History of the Indian National Congress’ (Vol. 1 appearing as the Golden Jubilee Volume in 1935, and Vol. 2 in 1947), ‘Gandhi and Gandhism’, ‘Why Vote Congress’, ‘The Consitutions of the World’, ‘Some Fundamentals of Indian Problems’, ‘Economic Conquest of India’, ‘Gandhism and Socialism’, ‘Feathers and Stones’, ‘Sixty Years of Congress’ and ‘Hindy Home Rediscovered’.

Author : V.N.Hari Rao